In three years, the first stage, on Pier 15, will provide vastly expanded space for the museum’s exhibits, classrooms and teacher-training facilities, which have outgrown their current site at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina.

Plans for expansion on Pier 17 will follow.

Large public promenades with dramatic views of the bay and the city’s skyline will replace the aprons of the dilapidated piers and add a unique marine environment to the museum for observing, experimenting and contemplating life forms in the bay waters.

When the museum opens on Pier 15 in 2013, oceanographic research vessels will be able to dock there. Researchers aboard the ships will be able to relay science data freshly acquired from the open sea to the Exploratorium’s staff on shore for translation to visitors and to share with museums around the world.